22. Harrison
TWENTY-TWO
Harrison
“Are you fucking serious?” I barked, unable to keep the rage out of my voice.
“Lighten up,” Nigel said, clapping my back, too drunk to care about the pure fury radiating off me. I shrugged my shoulder violently and he staggered backward.
“It’s just one more stop,” Mark slurred.
“Thirty minutes away! You couldn’t have picked something closer to town?” I raked my hand through my hair, insanely frustrated with myself that I hadn’t noticed we’d been driving in the opposite direction this entire time. I had been heavily distracted by a certain redhead. One who I was sure I’d messed everything up with.
“This beach is supposed to be legendary for parties,” Nigel argued, pointing at the beach club in front of us.
Music blared out of speakers and guests lounged in chairs sipping cocktails, but overall, at least from what I could tell, it was a pretty tame environment.
Groaning, I pinched my eyes.
“Seems deader than I thought,” Will said.
“Maybe because it’s two in the afternoon.” I gestured at the sky.
“The other place had a party.” Nigel pouted.
“Because the girls specifically looked up which beaches had a DJ during the day.” My voice was thick with frustration. These guys were a freaking mess. Of course, they’d expected to just stumble around and find another party. They couldn’t come up with a successful plan to save their lives.
“Could you find us another party?” Mark asked me.
“What about the bar crawl? The one we’re supposed to be on in town ?” I asked, glaring at the three of them.
“That’s a good idea,” Nigel slurred. “Let’s go.”
“Jesus Chri—” They were impossible. They couldn’t keep to task for more than five seconds. “Well, now we’re on the other side of the island, genius,” I added.
“I just want to party.” Mark started jumping up and down as a club beat came on over the speakers.
“It’s our birthday,” Will whined.
“I need to call Lila.” I tuned out their incessant chatter.
I pulled up her contact info and I waited for her to pick up. But instead of her voice on the other end of the line, an older woman with a Greek accent answered.
“Hello,” Maria said. “I think you left your phone outside.”
My heart dropped.
“ Shit ,” I cursed, pulling the phone away from my ear for a second before bringing it back. I had completely forgotten Lila had lost her phone. Talk about the worst fucking timing I could think of. “That’s Lila’s phone,” I said, my mind already racing with the need to find her.
“I’ll hang on to it for her,” Maria said.
I thanked her and ended the call.
Now, not only could I not reach Lila, but she was also by herself, on an island we weren’t even staying on, without a phone.
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” I started to pace. This was all my fault. I should have insisted that Lila and I get our own taxi. I should have remembered that she didn’t have a phone. I had been too hung up on thoughts of last night, and I hadn’t even thought about it. I should never have been that careless with her.
We didn’t even know these people, not really. Even if I turned around now, I’d still be over an hour late meeting her. Would she wait around? Would she wander off without a phone? The thought terrified me.
A high pitched scream came from behind me, and I spun around. Nigel was on the ground, clutching his nose, while blood spurted from underneath his hand.
“What the hell?” I demanded, stalking over to them.
“He tripped,” Mark said.
“How bad is it?” Tears were in Nigel’s panicked eyes.
“Move your hand so I can see,” I ordered.
He took his shaky hand away from his face. His nose was swelling up and there was a large gash underneath it. I was no expert, but it looked like it needed stitches.
“Did you brace the fall with your face?” I asked.
“He didn’t brace it at all.” Will chuckled, but Nigel’s sobs made him snap his mouth closed.
“It’s bad. I know it is. Oh my God.”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes at his dramatics. He was acting as if he’d lost a limb rather than just scraped his face on the pavement.
“What do we do?” Mark asked, looking to me with panic in his eyes.
“Shit.” I blew out a breath. These guys were a liability that, somehow, I had become in charge of.
“One sec.” I walked toward the entrance to the beach bar.
“Where are you going?” Nigel demanded. “We need you.”
“I’ll be right back,” I said. “Keep applying pressure to that cut.”
Even though I had this mess to deal with, the only concern I had at the moment was for Lila. The sooner I dealt with this situation, the sooner I could find her. And I needed to find her as fast as possible.
Once inside, I tracked down one of the managers who turned out to be incredibly helpful. He called us a taxi and told me where the nearest clinic was. He also gave me a few towels to help with the bleeding.
“Here.” I threw one of the towels at Nigel once I was back outside. Instead of calming down, he had ramped up to hysterical.
“Will I need stitches?” he asked.
“Probably. Hold the towel on your face,” I instructed.
“Oh God, I hate needles.”
“It’s not so bad. I had to get my hand stitched up last year,” Will said.
“My face will never be the same.” Nigel moaned in agony.
“Good thing it wasn’t pretty in the first place.” Mark chuckled to himself.
After what felt like an agonizingly long time, the taxi finally pulled into the parking lot.
The driver took one look at us and shook his head.
“No. Not in my car.”
“Please.” I wasn’t above begging at this point. “Just to the clinic down the road. And see—” I held up a couple of clean towels and opened the back door. “He’ll sit on these.”
The driver still looked angry, but gave a curt nod.
“Get in.”
“Where are you going?” Nigel gripped the window to the front seat of the cab.
“Back into town.” We’d arrived at the clinic to drop off the boys. When I’d stayed in the car and instructed the driver to keep going, Nigel, Mark, and Will all protested.
“We need you,” Will insisted.
“No. You don’t. And I need to find Lila.” I glared at them all. If they didn’t back off this taxi and let me go in the next ten seconds, my patience would be completely gone. It had already been almost two hours since I’d last seen her. My throat tightened just thinking about it.
“What do we do?” Mark asked.
“Turn your asses around and walk through the door!” I exclaimed, pointing behind them at the clinic.
“Can you come with u?—”
“No. You’re three grown-ass men. Figure it out.”
“But—”
“Go!” I said, narrowing my eyes and daring them to challenge me again.
“He’s right. We got this.” Mark patted Nigel’s back. “We’ll get you fixed up in no time.”
“Great,” I mumbled, my body sagging with relief when they finally backed away.
“See you later,” Will said waving, still not looking completely sober.
I gave them what could only be called a sarcastic wave as the driver pulled away from the clinic and they disappeared behind the doors.
He let out a gruff sigh and we both exchanged a look of respite.
“To town?” he confirmed.
“Yes. As fast as possible.”
The drive stretched on for what felt like hours. I sat in the passenger seat, foot tapping aggressively against the floor. What could Lila have possibly thought? There was no way in hell she’d think I’d just ditch her. The idea was too preposterous. I just hoped she’d stuck with the girls. Logically, I knew she would be alright; it was unlikely that anything had happened to her. But I would continue to spiral until I saw her face again.
She wouldn’t have tried to go back to Santorini on her own, would she? Surely, she would have waited for me longer than a few hours.
Part of me wondered if this all had to do with my piss-poor excuse for communication last night. Would she even have wanted to tag along on this trip if I hadn’t messed everything up yesterday?
As soon as the words had come out of my mouth—about being worried that she had a crush on me—I’d regretted them. They’d tasted bitter when I said them, and even now, almost a full day later, the aftertaste remained. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t how I felt.
I didn’t know what it felt like to want someone like that, not just for their body, but for everything else they were as well. The closest I’d ever come to a relationship was sleeping with the same girl for a few months. Inevitably, it would end when she wanted me to open up more and I refused to oblige.
Lila had gotten in, though. Despite me resisting at every opportunity, she had nestled her way right into all the important parts of me. I hadn’t known how to handle it. I hadn’t been planning on making a move last night, but it just happened. And it happened before I’d had the chance to sort through these new feelings.
What I said hadn’t been completely wrong. I didn’t want to hurt her. That was the last thing I could cope with. I still wasn’t entirely sure what I did want, but it was unfair to her not to let her know the full truth. Which was that I felt a lot for her. Probably a hell of a lot more than she felt for me. That scared the shit out of me, but she deserved to know everything.
I doubted I could ever be good enough for her. That hurt to think about, but I couldn’t see a world where I could offer her even a fraction of what she’d already given to me. But I was selfish, and I was going to tell her what I felt, and deal with the rest of it later. I didn’t know how to do any of this, but I also couldn’t let her go.
I’d intended to tell her all this and lay myself bare the second I saw her this morning. She’d had other plans, which apparently involved avoiding me like the plague. I didn’t blame her, but I was also done letting her tiptoe around the subject. She was going to hear what I had to say, whether she liked it or not.
Now I just had to find her.
My foot bounced against the floorboard as the edge of Old Town came into view. I’d instructed the driver to drop me off at the same place we’d all originally planned to meet. I jumped out of the car and scanned the immediate surroundings. My stomach sank when I saw no signs of Lila or the others.
I cursed myself for the hundredth time for ever allowing us to be separated in the first place.
My only move was to head into the maze-like pedestrian streets. I’d have to wander down them and hope to find her. I didn’t want to think about what I would do if I didn’t. While there was always the possibility she could have headed back to Santorini when I failed to show, I couldn’t even fathom the idea of leaving this island without being sure of where she was.
I set off jogging down the cobbled streets. I kept my pace quick, but still slow enough that I could jerk my head in every direction to make sure I didn’t miss her. Thankfully, my brain was already wired to hyperfocus on Lila, so any faces that weren’t hers all seemed to blur together.
After fifteen minutes of searching, I stopped in the middle of a particularly crowded intersection to stand on a step, attempting to examine every passerby. My heart raced for reasons that had nothing to do with my sprint around the town.
Then, my heart nearly stopped altogether. Fifty feet away, disappearing around a corner, was a flash of red hair on top of a sundress. My chest exploded with relief as I hopped down from the step and tore off after her.